There is no question that our world is in trouble right now.  Our national and global economies continue to teeter on the brink of collapse, while hot-button issues such as global warming, peak oil and pollution continue to go on unsolved.  Increasing reports of famine, natural disasters and human suffering litter the landscape of news broadcasts.

With all of this calamity, people are starting to take notice and be concerned about the course of not only our country, but our world.  Huge corporations are risking our environment for the sake of profit, and impoverished countries are crying for a helping hand or even just a loaf of bread.  Very few people would say that things are going smoothly in the world right now.In The End of Growth, author Richard Heimberg expands on these issues, giving each their turn in his 336-page analysis of peak oil, peak water, and peak food, to name a few.  Heimberg talks about how our growth has finally exceeded the natural capacity of our world, and how change must be made now.   This is no longer a vague issue affecting our children or our children’s children – resource depletion and the end of growth are happening right here and right now.

Focusing on the current financial crisis and how it occurred, Heimberg shows us that depleted resources, environmental impacts and our overwhelming debt block our growth, giving us starting points to transition to a world none of us thought we would see in our lifetimes.  While this world may seem bleak, positive and meaningful changes can come about when we accept responsibility for the world we are creating and move forward to create a better, more sustainable model.